BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Early in the second period in a
tune-up match against the Far Eastern University Tamaraws in the FilOil Flying
V Premier Cup, Eric Salamat drilled a huge triple from the left corner pocket
to hike the Flying V Thunder’s lead to nine points.

Salamat pointed to his teammates
on the bench and saluted.

It was the shooting guard’s
signature move. A steal, a trey, and a salute.

In fact, two days earlier, against
the Arellano Chiefs in the same tournament, Salamat poked away the ball from a
driving Kent Michael Salado then fielded an off-balance pass and hit another
triple from the same position to tie the match at 77-all; the game’s last
points.

His teammates mobbed him for his
heroics.

At 29 years old, Eric Salamat is
the oldest player on a young Flying V Thunder squad that is composed mainly of
former Ateneo and La Salle players who will be seeing action in the upcoming
PBA D-League Foundation Cup.

The former Ateneo Blue Eagle who
won three UAAP seniors titles from 2008-10 then spent three years in the PBA,
one season each with different teams – the Alaska Aces who drafted him in
2011-12, the Air21 Express in 2012-13, and the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters
from 2013-14.

After his PBA stint, he played for
Manny Pacquiao’s Powervit Mindanao Aguilas in the Asean Basketball League. He
was signed by the Flying V Thunder for the aborted Country Wide Basketball
League but has stayed with the team that is currently participating as a guest
team in the ongoing FilOil Flying V Premier Cup as preparation for its D-League
stint.

Salamat, along with former La
Salle Green Archer and Mapua Cardinal Gab Banal, have been the most consistent
players in their two Premier Cup tune-up matches as well as recent scrimmages
with other squads.